Move over, Android. The Apple iPhone 7 is still thrashing the best that you have to offer

Here’s some fuel to add to the raging Apple vs Android debates that keep flaring up on social media. A number of recently revealed benchmarks reveal that last year’s iPhone 7 handily beats the latest Android flagships, including the much-vaunted Samsung Galaxy S8.

These tests were conducted by AppleInsider and are apparently conclusive evidence that Apple still rules.

On paper, the iPhone 7 has everything going against it. The device was launched last year, an eternity in smartphone years, features a quad-core chip and “only” 3 GB of RAM. It's also not built on the latest manufacturing processes.

By contrast, it’s impossible to find an Android flagship that doesn’t have a blazing fast 8-core processor and at least 4 GB of RAM. The latest flagship chipset is even built on a 10 nm manufacturing process.

On paper.

In reality, Apple’s tight control over its own software and hardware means it has an edge over its competitors that is unlike any other.

So what do AppleInsider’s benchmarks reveal?

The most obvious advantage that Apple has enjoyed has been with regards to single-threaded performance. As AppleInsider again reveals, the iPhone’s single-threaded performance dominates its Android counterparts. Apple iPhones, from the iPhone SE onwards, thrash Android in this metric.

In multi-core performance, only the newer Snapdragon 835-powered Samsung Galaxy S8 manages to beat the iPhone 7 Plus, but even then, by only a slim margin. The S8 scored 6,202 to the iPhone’s 5,953. This is on a chip with double the number of cores compared to the iPhone.

Another important benchmark, AnTuTu, which tests a phone’s graphical abilities, shows the iPhone 7 Plus again beating its Android competition by a fair margin. The S8 scores a 165,521 where the iPhone manages a score of 175,606.

Synthetic benchmarks tell one story, but in real world tests, where AppleInsider launched and switched between multiple apps, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were twice as fast as Android’s fastest device, the S8. The S8 took 7:40 minutes to complete the task where the iPhones took only 3:20 minutes.

Apple is obviously doing something right.

Interestingly, AppleInsider notes that the Google Pixel, Google’s iPhone competitor, is the worst performing Android smartphone in the market today.

If last year’s iPhones were this fast and Android’s best SoC can’t beat it today, what are the new iPhones going to achieve this year?